The goals of the 1-year study are to examine age and experience differences in strategic information search; examine the utility of various measures of decision quality; and explore the relationships among measures of task performance, decision quality and psychometric measures of intelligence. Thus, the study has the potential to significantly advance the current methodology and empirical knowledge base concerning higher-order cognitive processing in decision making. To accomplish these goals, the study proposes to examine measures of cognitive ability, task performance, and decision quality using data from 150 adults over age 50, stratified such that half will be age 70+. Such a contrast is well-founded given the observed differences in cognitive capacity, strategies, and motivations between those over and under age 70. In order to maximize the relevance of the task materials, realistic task materials for a decision-making task are drawn from the domains of relocation and consumer purchases. Individuals will make decisions for themselves and for hypothetical others. It is hypothesized that Task Performance measures will directly predict Decision Quality, whereas measures of Cognitive Ability will indirectly impact Decision Quality. A path analytic model will be used to test the multivariate relations among the various measures and constructs.
